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Just before the election, Netanyahu and Katz are once again pouring stupid money on the public - Walla! news

2021-01-25T04:19:41.728Z


Although the scope of the program is about NIS 15 billion, the measures have hardly been discussed with the professional bodies in the Ministry of Finance. The grants program will not really be able to accelerate consumption, and may exacerbate the deep deficit anyway. Above all, the question remains as to why, right now, two months before the election, a grant is needed


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Just before the election, Netanyahu and Katz are once again pouring stupid money on the public

Although the scope of the program is about NIS 15 billion, the measures have hardly been discussed with the professional bodies in the Ministry of Finance.

The grants program will not really be able to accelerate consumption, and may exacerbate the deep deficit anyway.

Above all, the question remains as to why, right now, two months before the election, a grant is needed

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  • Benjamin Netanyahu

  • Israel Katz

  • Ministry of Finance

  • Deficit

Sonia Gorodisky

Monday, 25 January 2021, 06:05

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In the video: Contrary to the position of the Speaker: Netanyahu and Katz presented an economic assistance program (Contact)

Last night (Sunday), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Israel Katz presented an economic assistance program to deal with the corona crisis.

According to estimates, the scope of the plan is about NIS 15 billion.

It was to be expected that the professional bureaucracy in the Ministry of Finance worked on the program on a considerable scale, day and night, in order to present it in such a short time.

But it did not happen.



One of the officials in the office said that he received the details of the plan on WhatsApp about an hour before it was presented.

Another source said that apart from several discussions that took place last week, the plan was not discussed with finance officials.

According to him, no decisions were made in discussions with the professionals, and the exact details of the plan were not discussed at all.



"Several proposals were thrown into the air, but by and large the plan was built without consultation with the professional echelon in the Ministry of Finance and despite the conspicuous opposition of very many elements to the plan," the source said.

In one of the discussions held last week, regarding grants for the unemployed who have been at home for more than three months, the Attorney General of the Ministry of Finance, Assi Messing, clarified that Minister Katz will have to explain why bring the plan now, and what has changed from a few weeks ago.

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Pouring money on the public.

Netanyahu and Katz (Photo: Official website, Amit Shabi, Yedioth Ahronoth)

As of this moment, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Finance has not issued any official announcement on her behalf with the details of the plan, as has been the practice to date, and this announcement will probably no longer be issued.

The details of the plan were disseminated by Likud spokeswoman and Minister Katz.

At the time of presentation of the plan, it was not explained what its budgetary source would be and what its cost would be.

It is to be assumed that Netanyahu and Katz will have to open a new corona fund, in addition to those that have already been opened for the purpose of financing the assistance provided to citizens so far, totaling almost NIS 140 billion.



At the beginning of the presentation, Netanyahu compared Israel to the United States and said that the latest plan presented by the Biden administration amounts to 8.6% of GDP. According to the prime minister, if Israel wanted to launch a similar plan, it should have invested NIS 122 billion, and that the Israeli plan does not come close these.

The program has previously been found to be ineffective

Despite the audit in the past, one of the sections of the program is the distribution of grants to each citizen, except this time the audit was partially internalized, and only citizens belonging to the seventh decile and below will receive a grant of NIS 750 per adult.

Families with children in all deciles will receive a grant of NIS 500 for each child up to the fourth child, and NIS 300 for each child from the fifth and up.



To distinguish between the deciles, the state will use the Social Security data.

These have incomes of up to NIS 13,000.

It is not clear why this was not possible in previous aid programs, and public funds were thrown into the air in the amount of billions of shekels.



The purpose of the grants to citizens, according to the Minister of Finance, is to boost consumption and thereby the growth of the economy.

This plan has been found in the past to be ineffective and one that does not really accelerate consumption.

For people in financial distress, the money will be used to close the "minus" in the bank, repay loans and to consume food products - which were not harmed but even increased during the corona period.

The main points of Netanyahu and Katz's plan

  • Grant for businesses affected by 25% or more (businesses opened this year will receive a grant of NIS 8,000)

  • Household grant up to the seventh decile: NIS 750 per adult, NIS 500 per child up to the fourth child

  • Providing incentives to return veteran Corona unemployed to work, and an incentive for employers to hire them

  • A special grant for the disabled of half a billion shekels

  • Deployment of VAT to facilitate small and medium-sized businesses

  • Facilitating business loans, increasing loans, deploying and extending their repayment

  • Continue to pay unemployment benefits to the self-employed

  • Reduction of regulations

  • Investment reform reform: Pension and insurance funds will be able to invest up to NIS 50 billion in high-tech, and NIS 100 billion in infrastructure

The plan - contrary to the position of the ombudsman and without consulting the professionals. Mandelblit (Photo: Flash 90, Olivia Fitoussi)

As for the middle class - which according to Social Security data was hit the hardest during the Corona period - here too it is doubtful whether the money will really contribute to encouraging local businesses.

Many of the grant recipients' businesses will continue to remain closed when the grant funds are received.

Above all, the question remains as to why grants are needed for citizens right now, while completely ignoring Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's warning about "restraint and restraint" during the election period.



The last section of the plan talks about reforms that "will inject huge capital into high-tech and infrastructure."

This is an important and welcome section, only that the presenters of the Katz and Netanyahu program did not state that this is in fact an unapproved part of the Arrangements Law, because the government established in June 2020 failed to pass a state budget, neither for 2020 nor for 2021.



After Katz finished presenting the plan, Netanyahu returned to the speech and explained why Israel can afford to carry out the plan now.

"Yes, We Can" he said, and began to enumerate the strengths of the Israeli economy - the high rating, debt-to-GDP ratio, minimal contraction of GDP and the expectation of high growth as well as low interest rates.

The money will be used to close the bank deficit, repay loans and consume food.

Elderly man rummaging through a trap in Rishon LeZion (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Israel's credit rating has indeed remained unchanged in recent times, yet the two major rating agencies ratified it even before they learned that Israel was entering a fourth election campaign within two years.

It is true that the third and smallest company in them, Fitch, also ratified it, but for the most part it "aligns" with the big companies.



In addition, Israel's debt-to-GDP ratio is indeed lower than that of the United States as Netanyahu presented - 73% compared to 133% - but this is an illegitimate comparison between one of the largest economies in the world and Israel.

Israel's debt-to-GDP ratio also jumped by 13% in 2020.

More on Walla!

NEWS

For the first time in 20 years: a sharp decline in the standard of living in Israel

To the full article

Israel's GDP shrank slightly relative to other developed countries, but this did not happen because of economic policy, but because the locomotive of the Israeli economy, high-tech, saved GDP.

The main victims of the crisis were businesses and the unemployed with low labor productivity whose contribution to GDP was less significant.



What they also forgot to present is Israel's deficit for 2020, which is among the highest in developed countries, 11.7% of GDP, which is more than NIS 160 billion.

The deficit will increase even more as new corona boxes are opened, financed by the loans we will have to repay - even if it is at low interest rates, as it is now.

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Source: walla

All news articles on 2021-01-25

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